I'm here

I have not disappeared!  I just haven't been doing a whole lot lately.  We have taken a 2 month break from school (something we have not done in the past with schooling year round).  We are all looking forward to starting school back up in August and getting back into a routine once again.  

The garden is doing well.  We have been eating fresh green beans, tomatoes, cucumber and are still waiting for the sweet potato, peppers and the onions.  We found a snake hanging out on one of the green bean leaves.  Scared all the kids but I think it is just a garter snake.  

Our 'friends' continue to visit.  The deer hasn't been coming around during the day lately but I've seen her at night.  I've also seen the raccoons as well.  One actually climbed up onto the bird feeder and was eating out of it.  This guy was big too!!  We've also had quite a few rabbits in the yard which the kids love to watch.  No new birds.  We've enjoyed the Indigo Bunting all summer and our other usual birds.  We didn't get very many goldfinch this year though.  The woodpeckers and bluejays will come visit every now and then....and we have an abundance of doves, chickadees and cardinals!  

Other than that...I guess there's nothing to update on.  Baby girl did get another tooth....finally.  Number 5.  She is just soooo different than the other 4.  They all had a mouthful before they were a year old!  We haven't moved her onto chunky solids yet cause she can't chew :)  We've also discovered she loves to wrestle with the kids....especially her big sister (3 yr old).  It is so funny to watch them.  They are all such blessings! 

Unwelcomed guests!

So, with our deer friend visiting daily....we thought it was time we bought her some real food to munch on instead of birdseed.  We bought this wildlife mix and nicely poured it out in her usual feeding spot before heading to bed.  Well, when we heard a rustle outside, hubby and I quickly headed towards the door to peek on our friend.  We didn't find our friend.  Instead we found 2 very unwelcomed guests!!  RACCOONS!  Guess that will be the last night of wildlife food we put out on the deck!!

Our friend

Birthday

Our boy is now 8 years old!  These kids are just growing up way too fast!!  I was very proud of our girl taking charge of the party this year.  Mommy wasn't feeling the greatest, so she made the cake and decorated it all by herself.  She did a great job and our birthday boy was very happy with the results!  Besides getting some fun toys and treats as presents, he also got alot of books!  He has already read (yes, in 24 hrs) 5 of his books.  This kid LOVES to read!!  Here's a few pics from yesterday.

And our deer friend has been visiting daily....right up to the house.  She doesn't startle too easily.  The kids can stand by the door and watch her as she licks birdseed off the deck.  It still startles me to turn and look out the door and see her staring back at me!!!  Here's a few pics of our friend...

The shrinking garden

We've noticed that 2 of our rather large tomato plants are getting smaller and smaller.  We've also noticed a few ends here and there that have been snapped off of the other leafy greens.  Today confirmed the culprit!!!
I walked into the kitchen and was face to face with our deer friend.  He was just feet from the door.  Wasn't even scared either.  Just looked at me :)  What a sneak.  So glad our garden is feeding the local wildlife....not!

Sonight curriculum

Recently an article was posted about Ken Ham by the cofounder of Sonlight...a popular curriculum used among Christian homeschoolers.  I'm going to sum up the article for you but I've posted the link below.
We, as Christians, need to be very careful which curriculum we choose for our children.  I'm not saying all of Sonlight's curriculum is bad but we can see the approach that Sonlight has taken when it comes to Biblical viewpoints especially about the origins of the earth.  Sonlights position is that they present different world views about how the earth is created and show that Christians can differ in what they believe......as parents you are free to teach your children which viewpoint you hold to.
 I believe the Bible is VERY clear on the origins of the earth and to suggest that Christians can differ on this viewpoint is not biblical!!  We need to be teaching our children God's absolute truth with no compromise.  We DO need to teach them what the world believes and show them through scripture why those views are wrong.  But we certainly do not need to present different world views with the idea that it is OK for Christians to differ on what they believe!!

Here is the link to the entire article
http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2013/07/03/cofounder-of-sonlight-calls-me-pope-ham/

*I can't believe the sheer disrespect and rudeness towards Ken Ham from Holzmann.  What a reflection of his character which is another reason I would never recommend Sonlight to anyone!!*

Garden and updates

We have been finally getting produce from our garden!  It's been great.  This is our first garden that has actually worked.  It's exciting to go out and see all the veggies growing, waiting for them to ripen.  So far we've been able to pick the onions and tomatoes, but our cayenne, beans and grape tomatoes will soon be ready.  Cucumbers are taking awhile to get here and I'm not sure how the sweet potato are doing.

This cold is still hanging on as well.  More of a sinus thing I guess.  Hopefully it will clear up soon.  So thankful the rest of the family didn't get anymore that some light sneezing.

We have taken quite a nice break from school.  We usually school year round but taking the month of June off was really nice!!  Need to get back into the swing of things though.  Maybe after our boys birthday!  Hard to believe we will be celebrating an 8th birthday for him on Monday!!  These kiddos need to slow down on their growing.

Hubby is still doing well surgery wise.  He is going on 17 months since his last surgery which is amazing!!!  Our God is so good!

I think that's it for the updates right now........

Toothless

I know I haven't posted in awhile.  Right at the moment I am suffering with a horrible head cold and fever.  I don't know why I got it so bad.  The kids have been sneezing but I seem to have something much worse than them.  I haven't felt this bad since I had the flu back in December!!
The only real news going on here is our boy FINALLY lost his top tooth.  This thing has been wiggly for I don't know how long.  I mean it's been months and months and months!!  I think he is finally glad it is out.

Creation Museum Updates

It's been awhile since the kids and I have been in the Creation Museum, but there have been so many new additions lately....we need to schedule our next visit soon!!  Here are some of the cool new exhibits we haven't even seen yet.....

Dr. Crawley's Insectorium  The collection of bugs and insects represents a lifetime of collecting by Dr. Crawley, who began his interest in these creatures during a merit badge project as a kid. Wherever his travels took him, he would venture out and add to his collection.

Dragon Invasion Exhibit  Regale yourself with delightful artwork and other beautiful adornments as you stroll beneath extraordinary Chinese dragons in the museum's portico. Learn about fabulous encounters with these incredible beasts from China to Africa, Europe to the Americas, and Australia to the Middle East. Discover what ancient historians have written about these creatures, and examine armaments that may have been used by valiant dragon slayers.

Museum of the Bible A new exhibit in the Creation Museum, part of an impressive traveling exhibition of rare Bible manuscripts and artifacts from the famed Green Collection.

Ziplines Travelers will trek on 20 zip lines that range from 270 feet to 900 feet in length and up to 150 feet in the air.  You will also traverse 10 sky bridges over 2 1/2 miles. 

On the move now!

Our girl is finally walking.

Garden

We planted a garden this year and with all the rain we've been having, it is really taking off.  It is an 8 ft x 8 ft frame and we have planted 2 types of tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, squash, cayenne pepper, red onion, and rosemary.  I still have other herbs I need to get planted.  We were thinking of adding on a 4 x 8 right beside it.  Not sure if it is too late now or not....we'll see.  We have a few green tomatoes already but that's it.  Looking forward to hopefully a fruitful outcome!!

and here's a pic of one of my girls today.....

Book list

I thought I would update our book list of recommendations for each age group.  Our kids LOVE to read and we have accumulated quite the stack of books.  Here are some of the kids favorites!  Click on the names to their links....

Ages 6-9
Imagination Station books.  They are geared toward grade level 1.7 and my second grader zips right through them.  We just bought the first four and he read 3 of them that night.  There are 12 in the series so guess what will be arriving in the mail soon!  The rest of them!!

The Andy series (Circle C Beginnings) by Susan K Marlow.  I've wrote about them before.  Again, these are great for a reader who is now ready to read chapter books on their own.  All about a girl and her horse.

The Cul-de-Sac kids are a great series for beginning readers.  Easy to follow and fun!  My son again zipped through the whole 24 book series in a matter of weeks.  

Mystery of Pelican Cove and The Treasure of Pelican Cove

Captive Treasure and Nix  all books through BJU Press for ages 7-10. My son loved all of them!

Ages 9-12

Rachel Yoder series by Wanda E Brunstetter.  My daughter loved these.  All about an amish girl and her family and the trouble she gets in!  She couldn't put these down!

Double Trouble series by Wanda Burnstetter.  There are 3 in the series with the 4th book soon to be released.  Set in the Amish community, these twins have quite the adventures!

Circle C Adventures (The Andy series) but more grown up.  Andy and her horse on more adventures!

Gold Town Adventures Just discovered this one (so guess what is on our next purchase list!!)  This is apart of the Andy series, but it is Andy's big brother Jem!  Looks like a great series for boys.  Book 1 and 2 are available with book 3 due to be released.

The Truth Chronicles by Tim Chaffey.  This series is written by a man that hubby works with at the Creation Museum.  Excellent books!!!  We even have a signed copy (yay!)

The Viking Quest series (ages 10-14).  My daughter again LOVED this series.  Time period fiction with Christian principles.  She wished the series was longer!!!

The Sugar Creek Gang  by Paul Huchens.  Our boy has just started this series.  He keeps telling me "these boys are just like me!"  About 36 books in the series.

Read alouds

The Jungle Doctor series by Paul White, a missionary to Tanzania writes about his adventures!  Some of the language is a bit hard for children's reading so may be best as real alouds to your children.  Also great for adults!  I believe it also comes in audio form which might be great as well!

Little Lights Books ages 4 and up.  Just found these are they look wonderful!  The true stories of people such as Corrie Ten Boom, George Muller, David Livingston, Amy Carmichael.....

Home

We had a nice, but as always, quick visit down south over the weekend.  It's always great seeing family!  Hubby had some business to attend to while there which was stressful but the Lord was gracious and everything seems to be working great now.  We also attended the funeral of a long time church friend of the family.  This week we will be getting together with a missionary family that we have been supporting for awhile now.  This will be the first time to meet them.  They will also get the chance to go through the Creation Museum.   And a happy anniversary to my parents!  Forty one years...love you both.  Other than that, we are doing well and look forward to the week ahead!

Memories!

Does this ever bring back memories....reminds me of our Sunday afternoons when Mom and Dad put the record player on (yes! a record player!!)

Jesus We Just want to Thank You!


Hallelujah Square

The Train Song

Our bunting is back

Look who has been visiting the feeder that past few days :)  Our indigo bunting!!

Blue eyes

Nothing really exciting going on here so I  thought I would post a pic of my girl at 13 months...

Praise

I thought it was about time that we recognized a huge praise on this blog.  Many of you already know that hubby was scheduled for another surgery but he has since cancelled it with no intentions of rescheduling any time soon.
Hubby's trachea continually closes up about every 8 months and he needs to go for surgery to reopen it so he can breath once again.  This has been going on for over 6 years.  Through some research I did, I wanted hubby to start detoxing his body through a fresh juice diet.  It seemed to be helping as the 8 month mark came and went without surgery!  As the one year mark approached since his last surgery (February) he could feel that he was tightening up a bit, so we scheduled a checkup with the doctor.  During that visit, the doctor mentioned about gluten sensitivity and we decided to give a gluten-free (and gmo-free) diet a chance to see if that would help.  We also scheduled a surgery date for April.  Well, after being on a strictly fresh fruit/vegetable, nuts and seeds diet (with a little meat).....April came and went and we cancelled surgery!!!  A bonus was hubby is down 30 lbs as well :)   His inflammation has decreased and he can breath better than he did back in February!
We are sooooo very thankful for this answer to prayer!  I don't know if hubby is completely healed of this yet or not, but to know that the steps we are taking right now has prolonged his surgery date is so wonderful!  I thank God for His goodness to us and pray that this may be the end of his battle with subglottic stenosis for good!!

New bird!

Our new bird at the feeder!  This is a Common Grackle.  This type rarely comes around and when it does, they don't stick around for very long.  My pics aren't very clear because I had to snap pics real quick and couldn't focus properly.  Neat though huh!!!

Presidents from memory

We have been studying the presidents for the past couple weeks.  The kids have finally memorized all of them!  Here they each are, reciting the names.  Our 7 yr old did it with his eyes closed to show that no one received any 'helps' or 'hints' while reciting.   The 2 older ones recite complete names while our 5 yr old recites just last names. (Even our 3 yr old has most of them down pat!!)
**Be patient - they are big files and may take a moment to load :)

New birds for today

Here are some new birds from today.  Their names are under their pictures.

Male Eastern Towhee

Female Eastern Towhee

Northern Mockingbird - Tennessee State bird

Downy Woodpecker

Brown-headed Cowbird

Here is a fight I captured at the birdfeeder

Giveaway and birds

Great giveaway going on over at Jill's Home Remedies  Go enter!!!

With the beautiful weather, we have had quite a few birds to the feeder.  Here are some of them!  Our Indigo Bunting is back....yeah!!!!!!!!!!

One year pictures

We took our girl to have her one year photos done today and here they are!  Number one is the one we bought.

Toothy smile

look at those teeth!